We’re constantly bombarded with stories about the foods that are good (or bad) for our health.

The information comes from many sources. They include breathless news stories published online and shown on TV, and sensational clickbait headlines which may or not actually be true. More often than not, the latest “truth” seems to conflict with stories we’ve previously seen.

Several facts about coffee always stand out, though.

• Coffee may help you burn body fat and lose weight.
• Drinking coffee regularly may help prevent some diseases.
• People who drink coffee are lowering their risk of death.

Those are very broad statements. But generally speaking, they’re all true.

Here’s what all of those news reports and headlines have in common, though: they all talk about coffee, but they never mention instant coffee.

It would be easy to assume that you can only enjoy those fabulous health benefits if you drink lots of freshly-brewed coffee. But that assumption would be wrong.

Instant coffee is really nothing more than coffee that’s been prepared differently. And all coffee – including the jar of instant coffee that’s in your parents’ refrigerator – can be very good for your health.

Let’s find out more.

You know those coffee beans that you grind and brew at home? The beans they use to make ground coffee? The ones they use at your local coffee shop to make delicious coffee drinks?

The same beans are used to make instant coffee.

Of course, they’re not simply ground and brewed, with the end product put into containers. There’s a complicated process used to turn them into instant coffee, which can be reconstituted with the addition of hot water – and which obviously has a much longer shelf life than fresh coffee.

1. The roasting is done at a lower temperature, in order to ensure higher water content in the beans. (Caffeine is removed before roasting, if the producer is making decaf instant coffee.)
2. The roasted coffee beans are ground coarsely, to make sure the water used during brewing won’t get stuck in the grounds.
3. Special extraction equipment is used to brew the ground coffee, because the product has to be a sludgy coffee extract.
4. The extract is concentrated through cooling, evaporation or use of a centrifuge.
5. Gases collected during the last two processes are re-infused into the concentrate, to reinforce its aroma.
6. Finally, the concentrate is dehydrated, either with “spray-drying” (hot air turns it into fine powder or crystals) or freeze-drying (a repeated freezing process followed by drying in a vacuum chamber, which turns it into coffee granules or crystals).

Spray-drying is less expensive and faster; the freeze-drying process takes longer, costs more, and produces better-tasting coffee. Either way, though, the final product is still coffee, and it still acts like coffee once it’s inside your body even though it’s been heavily processed.

Some of coffee’s purported health effects have been more definitively proven than others. Even so, the list of coffee’s apparent benefits is long and impressive – and as we’ve stressed, instant coffee is coffee.

Antioxidant Power

Antioxidants are crucial to human health. They protect cells against damage by the hazardous free radicals naturally created by the body; that damage can lead to development of diseases ranging from heart disease to cancer. 

Studies repeatedly show that coffee is the most-important dietary source of antioxidants. There has also been research showing that the antioxidant content of instant coffee is almost the same as in brewed coffee.

There may be more of one antioxidant compound in brewed coffee, and more of a different compound in instant. But studies have found that instant coffee has more of the most important antioxidants, chlorogenic acid and polyphenols, than are found in brewed coffee. Bottom line: instant may be even better for you.

Lower Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Scientists are still trying to fully understand the reasons, but it’s been shown over and over again that coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The more coffee people drink, the lower their apparent risk. Studies have found that heavy coffee drinkers (3-4 cups per day) may reduce their possibility of diabetes by 50% or even more; one report estimated that each daily cup lowered the diabetes risk by 7%.

Nutrients

Any type of coffee, including instant, won’t supply the full recommended daily amount (RDI) of any vitamin or mineral. But the average coffee drinker has 2-3 cups per day, so it all adds up. Coffee contains vitamins B2, B3 and B5, potassium, calcium, magnesium and manganese.